There is not a single Republican in the House of Representatives that is serious about anything but power and politics. This is the similar to the tactic Dixiecrats used to oppose the Civil Rights Act of 1964: load it down with so much controversy that (they hope) responsible politicians will vote it down. It didn't work with the Civil Rights Act. But the intent is more subtle here because they are trying to use Democratic fear of bad names to shoehorn in a few more dictatorial institutions.

Some of these measures were included in a Justice Department memo leaked last year and dubbed "Patriot Act II" by critics who said they would further erode civil liberties that were weakened by the Patriot Act, passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

More on that below the quote.

GOP Bill Adds Police Powers to Intelligence Reforms
By Mary Curtius
Times Staff Writer

September 25, 2004

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders introduced legislation Friday that grafts broadened police powers onto a plan to reform the nation's intelligence-gathering agencies.

Like a bill passed earlier by a Senate committee, the proposal adopts recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission for establishing a national intelligence director and a center for counterterrorism.

But it also calls for new police powers that would, among other things, set new federal standards for state driver's licenses and step up inspections of travelers to the U.S.

Democrats and some Republicans said the additions needlessly politicized what had been a remarkably bipartisan effort in the Senate, dimming prospects that a bill would be signed into law before the November elections.
…The bill would:
• Make it easier to deport aliens who help or join terrorist groups.
• Give the government warrant powers to help track "lone wolf" terrorists unconnected to terrorist groups.
• Set minimal federal standards for state-issued driver's licenses and identity cards.
• Increase the number of border patrol agents and immigration and customs agents.
• Expand U.S. agents' inspection of travelers to the United States at foreign airports.
• Establish a national database for government agencies to more easily share information on citizens.

Now, folks will likely suggest my reaction is a bit paranoid, but we know this administration has the tendency to sneak around. And I have not seen any reports that The V.I.C.T.Or.Y (which stands for Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Yaddayaddayadda) has been tabled.

And let us remember that George Bush has already expanded the government's P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act powers:

WITH A WHISPER, NOT A BANG

By David Martin 12/24/2003
Bush signs parts of Patriot Act II into law — stealthily

On December 13, when U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein, President George W. Bush not only celebrated with his national security team, but also pulled out his pen and signed into law a bill that grants the FBI sweeping new powers. A White House spokesperson explained the curious timing of the signing – on a Saturday – as "the President signs bills seven days a week." But the last time Bush signed a bill into law on a Saturday happened more than a year ago – on a spending bill that the President needed to sign, to prevent shutting down the federal government the following Monday.

By signing the bill on the day of Hussein's capture, Bush effectively consigned a dramatic expansion of the USA Patriot Act to a mere footnote. Consequently, while most Americans watched as Hussein was probed for head lice, few were aware that the FBI had just obtained the power to probe their financial records, even if the feds don't suspect their involvement in crime or terrorism.

The Bush Administration and its Congressional allies tucked away these new executive powers in the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004, a legislative behemoth that funds all the intelligence activities of the federal government. The Act included a simple, yet insidious, redefinition of "financial institution," which previously referred to banks, but now includes stockbrokers, car dealerships, casinos, credit card companies, insurance agencies, jewelers, airlines, the U.S. Post Office, and any other business "whose cash transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory matters."

Understand that. This doesn't just target terrorists or even criminals. What cash transactions do NOT have "a high degree of usefulness" in tax matters? What cash transactions do NOT have "a high degree of usefulness" in regulatory matters?

People who do not understand the P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act as a threat to your civil liberties are simply unfamiliar with what it says. John Ascroft and crew have already used existing law outside it's intended realm. We all remember this incident, right?

As everyone now knows, a couple weeks ago, most Democrats in the Texas state House ran off to neighboring Oklahoma to avoid a vote on a DeLay-designed redistricting bill. Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick ordered the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to arrest the runaway Democrats and bring them back to Austin.

State troopers from the DPS eventually roped the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into the manhunt. By tricking them into thinking they were searching for a missing or crashed plane, the DPS got Homeland Security to help track down the airplane of former Texas Speaker Peter Laney (D), whom they suspected of helping ferry Democratic legislators out of the state.

That’s where things stood when I wrote about this last week.

Then last Thursday, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge declined to release the transcripts of conversations between the Texas DPS and his department because, he said, his department’s internal inquiry was “potentially a criminal investigation.”
The scope of the potential wrong-doing further expanded when it was revealed that the DPS had ordered all its records of the manhunt destroyed on May 14. A grand jury in Austin is now investigating what laws the DPS might have violated by destroying those documents.

Even the Onion can't make up a story about this that is actually beyond the pale.